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7 






SLAVEHOLDING 



WEIGHED IN THE 



BALANCE OF TRUTH, 



AND ITS COMPARATIVE GUILT ILLUSTRATED. 



' BY CHARLES FITCH. 
Pastor of First Free Congregational Church, Boston. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY ISAAC KNAPP, 
No. 25, Cornhill. 

1837. 



SLAVEHOLDING, he. 



In order that we may understand the duties, which 
we owe to God and our fellow men, relative to the sub- 
ject of slavery, it is necessary that we examine the in- 
stitution, in all its bearings upon the temporal and eter- 
nal interests of the enslaved ; and ascertain, as far as 
we are able to do so, the extent of the injuries which 
it inflicts. To aid my readers in doing this is now my 
object. 

I do not propose however, to gauge this mammoth 
evil, and show you its exact dimensions ; I fully con- 
fess to you in the outset, that I am not able so to do. 
That it is greater, in some of its bearings at least, than 
any other evil tha tever existed among men, and involves 
more guilt than any other crime ever committed by men, 
I fully believe, and shall endeavor to show ; still the 
evil has a magnitude which my powers cannot describe ; 
and the guilt a blackness which can never be painted, 
except by a pencil clipped in the midnight of the bot- 
tomless pit. 



I am aware, that great complaint has often been 
made, of those, who have endeavored to rouse the in- 
dignation of their fellow men against the wrongs inflict- 
ed on the poor slave, that they deal in unjust severity 
of language. That they have at any time spoken more 
than the truth, I do not believe — nor can I admit that 
they have dealt out severity and painted rebuke, in 
more unmeasured terms, than they have received them 
from their opponents. 

When I remember, too, the long and profound slum- 
berings, even of Christians on this subject, while their 
brethren were groaning under all the injuries, and cru- 
elties, of iron-handed and steel-hearted oppression ; I 
cannot suppress the feeling, that it was necessary, that 
that those who would arouse them, should break forth 
as in thunder tones, and gird up all their energies, to 
shake off the sloth in which their fellow men were 
bound. They had themselves but just awoke as from 
a dream, and found that they had long been sleeping, 
as on the overhanging brink of a burning crater ; and 
when they saw the whole multitude of their fellow 
countrymen, still asleep in the same situation of fearful 
peril ; who can wonder that they should cry out at the 
top of their voice, and resort to every possible expe- 
dient, to awaken those around them before it was too 
late? They heard the suppressed and terrific mutter- 
ings of the incipient earthquake below, and felt the 
ground beneath them already giving way, what less 
could they do, than to lay about them with all their 
strength, in the use of the first expedient, that seemed 
calculated to awaken and save ? They had no time to 
devise a multitude of measures, and then choose from 



among them, such as would be most likely to satisfy 
those who were unwilling to be awaked. They must 
do something, and do it then. Previous measures, 
though entered upon ostensibly for the purpose of 
arousing men from sleep, had only served as a lull-a-by. 
The oppressors of their fellow men, were but becoming 
more secure in their claims of property in God's image 
— the chains of the slave were getting more and more 
firmly rivetted, and the whole nation were fast binding 
themselves in a willing bondage to those, who found it 
conducive to their ease, and interest, and shameful in- 
dulgence, to be permitted to inflict all the wrongs they 
pleased on their fellow men, with none to utter a sin- 
gle note of remonstrance or rebuke. It was seen that 
the press was bribed, and the pulpit gagged, and the 
lips of the multitude padlocked, and nearly the whole 
population of the free States bound, by chains either of 
prejudice, or interest, or ignorance, to the tremendous 
car of Slavery ; and those who loved to have it so, had 
mounted the engine and were driving at rail-road speed, 
withersoever they would ; and when a few awoke, and 
saw the nation thus hastening to the precipice of ruin, 
to be dashed in the abyss below — what less could they 
do, than to cry STOP — and that too, even at a pitch 
of remonstrance, which should subject them to the im- 
putation of fanaticism or madness. 

It is not unlikely that some of my readers, may 
regard the language which I shall use as unreasonably 
severe ; and yet I do not believe, nor can I think that 
any man, after looking candidly at the subject, will be- 
lieve that it expresses more than the truth. 

My design is to draw a parallel between slavery and 



the evils which stand connected with it, and some of 
the worst evils and vices and crimes, which are ever 
found among men, that we may see where slavery 
ought to be placed in the catalogue of sins. 

1. Let us look at the Roman Catholic Church. 
Much has been said during the last few years, of the 
efforts which were being made, to bring this country 
under subjection to the Pope of Rome. Now it is 
enough to make a man shudder from head to foot, 
though his nerves were iron, and his sinews brass, to 
think of the most distant possibility that such a thing 
may ever take place. 

But what are the evils which the Romish Church in- 
flicts, upon such as are brought under her control ? 

She takes away the Bible from them, and gives them 
no opportunity, to learn for themselves, the way to 
heaven. All the religious instruction, which the people 
can receive, must come orally, from the lips of the 
priest. Slavery does the same thing precisely, to all 
who come under its control. They may not read the 
Bible, nor possess it — and can receive no religious in- 
struction, but what comes orally from the lips of the 
priest. The Roman Catholic Church depends for its 
perpetuity, upon the ignorance of th.e common people. 
Slavery depends for its perpetuity upon the ignorance 
of the enslaved. Hence the great effort to shut out all 
Jcnoivhdge. The Romish Church robs the laboring 
classes of large sums of money, to support its pope, 
and its cardinals, its bishops, and its priests, in idleness 
and luxury and profligacy. Slavery robs the laboring 
class of their earnings, to support another set of men in 
the same mode of life. The Romish Church confis- 



cates the property, and confines, and tortures, and puts 
to death, such as will not submit to her rule, whenever 
she has the power of doing so. Slavery does the same 
things. Not only the property, the whole earnings, 
but the wife and children, the hands and feet and head, 
the whole body and soul of the enslaved, are confiscat- 
ed, and appropriated to the use of men in power. Sla- 
very also has tortures for its victims. It applies the 
scourge, until the blood runs down their lacerated bod- 
ies in streams, and in a multitude of ways inflicts its 
cruelties, upon such as will not yield an entire submis- 
sion to its rule. If any refuse to submit longer to their 
sufferings, and flee, they are followed into their hiding 
places, and put to death. Others are whipped until 
death ensues ; others are driven to hard labor without 
proper food or rest, until they sink down and die. 

But the Romish Church does not, ordinarily, strip 
the whole multitude of its victims, of everything that 
bears the name of property, and take the ownership of 
themselves out of their hands, and drive them by the 
scourge to hard labor from the beginning to the end of 
the year. She does not measure out to them their 
scanty pittance of food, nor name every rag of clothing 
which they are permitted to put on, nor mock at all the 
relations of social life — stealing the child out of the 
father's arms, or off the mother's breast ; and the wife 
out of the bosom of her husband ; and separating them 
for life, depriving them of all the protection of law, 
and subjecting them daily to every injury and suffering, 
which avarice and passion and lust can load upon them. 
Nor are men, women and children under her influence, 
like cattle, raised to sell. Such enormities as these are 



8 

left to be practiced by slavery ; and to be legalized in 
the statute books of a people, who have boastingly re- 
garded themselves, as the most thoroughly christianized 
nation on which the sun ever shines. I say then, there 
are points, in which slavery far outdoes the Romish 
Church in cruelty and guilt ; binds heavier burdens, and 
more grievous to be borne, and lays them on men's 
shoulders, and will not touch them with a finger. Sla- 
very also like Romanism, cries out against free discus- 
sion, and the liberty of the press, and does not hesitate 
to silence both, so far as she has the power; and to 
make every possible advance toward it where the pow- 
er is not possessed. Hence the outrages committed on 
peaceful citizens, travelling in slaveholding States ; and 
the efforts to put down discussion, in almost all the 
States which call themselves free. Hence the destruc- 
tion of Birney's press in Cincinnati, and the stones cast 
in the streets of Troy, at the hero Weld, Who, like his 
Master, goes about doing good. Hence all the shame- 
ful outrages by which that place has been disgraced, and 
the still more shameful neglect of the proper authorities 
to protect peaceful, respectable, high-minded, and pious 
men, in the exercise of the most noble of all their 
rights, that of publicly expressing and defending their 
own opinions. Hence all the excesses practiced 
in this and several adjoining States, to lay the heaven- 
born spirit of liberty asleep, even among her own New- 
England hills. Hence the long, loud, and repeated 
threats of dissolving the Union, which Southern men 
have sent up on our ears, and which even some of our 
Governors have echoed back, in declarations that it is 
felony for a man to speak what he thinks on a particu- 



lar subject. Who doubts, that slavery if she could, 
would go so far in locking up the opinions of men within 
their own breasts, as ever popery went in the height of 
her power. She had already, well nigh, taken away 
the power of free discussion, from those who dare to as- 
sert the rights of their fellow men, and would soon have 
completed the work. 

2. Let us look at Infidelity. The evil arising from 
this source is, that it blinds men respecting their duty 
to God and their own souls, and thus leads them down 
to hell. It urges itself, however, on no man by force. 
A spark of honest desire to know the truth and walk 
in its light, is at all times, abundantly sufficient, to show 
a man the sophistry and wilful unbelief by which such 
doctrines are supported ; and to warn him of all their 
snares, and to guide his feet into the path of life. A 
spark of honesty in the admission of the plainest prin- 
ciples of common sense, will show a man that there is 
a God, that the Bible is a revelation of his will, and 
that he will not let the wicked go unpunished, who re- 
fuse to repent. He, therefore, who suffers himself to 
be borne upon the shoals and rocks, and down the cat- 
aracts, or into the whirlpools of wilful unbelief, goes 
there warned of his danger, and with abundant means 
and opportunities for escape. But slavery wrests the 
Bible out of the hands of immortal men by force. In 
the midst of a Christian land, with the clear light of 
heaven shining all around them, they are shut out from 
this light, and left to grope their way in darkness down 
to hell. That I may not be suspected of declaring 
more than the truth on this point, I will just give a 
specimen of the laws of slave States touching this point. 



10 

' A law of South Carolina, passed in 1800, author- 
izes the infliction of twenty lashes, on every slave, found 
in an assembly, convened for mental instruction, held 
in a confined or secret place, although in presence of a 
white.' That this cuts them off, and was designed to 
cut them off from all means of mental instruction, no- 
body doubts ; for who in that State is permitted to give 
slaves mental instruction in a public place ? ' Another 
law, imposes a fine of a hundred pounds, on any person 
who may teach a slave to write.' c In North Carolina, 
to teach a slave to read or write, or to sell or give him 
any book, [the Bible not excepted,] or pamphlet, is 
punished with thirty-nine lashes, or imprisonment if the 
offender be a free negro, but if a white, then with a 
fine of three hundred dollars. In Georgia, if a white 
teach a free negro or a slave to read or write, he is fined 
five hundred dollars, and imprisoned at the discretion of 
the Court. If the offender be a colored man, bond or 
free, he may be fined, or whipped, at the discretion of 
the Court. A father therefore, may not teach his own 
children, on penalty of being flogged.' ' This was en- 
acted in 1829.' 'In Louisiana, the penalty for teach- 
ing slaves to read or write, is one year's imprisonment. 
In Georgia also, any justice may, at his discretion, 
break up any religious assembly of slaves, and may or- 
der each slave present to be corrected, without trial, by 
receiving on the bare back, twenty-five stripes with a 
whip, switch, or cowskin.' ' In South Carolina, slaves 
may not meet together, before sunrise or after sunset, 
for the purpose of religious instruction, unless a major- 
ity of the meeting be of whites, on penalty of twenty 
lashes well laid on. In Virginia, all evening meetings 



11 

of slaves, at any meeting-bouse, are unequivocally for- 
bidden.' Of course they may not meet in tbe day 
time, for then they must labor. Possibly they may on 
the Sabbath, but their opportunities of doing it even 
then, are few and far between. 

You see, therefore, the strenuous efforts which are 
made by legislative enactments, to shut out all light 
from the mind of the slave, and surround him with a 
thick impenetrable darkness, in the midst of which he 
must live and die ; and from which bis eye never can 
open, till death frees him from the grasp of his oppres- 
sor. I am aware, that the privilege of giving oral relig- 
ious instruction to slaves is, to some extent, granted, and 
that some slave masters do pretend to teach their slaves 
the truths of religion. But what is the amount of all 
this ? A writer for the New York Evangelist has, some 
months since, given us what he terms ' sketches of 
slavery from a year's residence in Florida,' in one num- 
ber of which, he speaks on this very point. He had 
conversed with slaveholders on the subject. One man 
thought it a very fine thing to give slaves religious in- 
struction. ' I called my slaves together,' said he, ' one 
Sabbath day, the only time which I have been able to 
get this season ! ! ! and read to them the account ot 
Abraham's servant going to seek a wife for Isaac. 1 
took occasion from this, to speak to them of the integ- 
rity of this servant — what an amount of property wag 
committed to his care, how faithfully he watched over 
it, how careful not to purloin any of the rich jewels to 
himself, how anxious to return at the appointed time.' 
1 1 think,' said this slaveholder, * that religious instruc- 
tion must be decidedly beneficial.' Another master 



12 

with whom I conversed, continues the writer, believed 
nothing about giving religious instruction to slaves. He 
regarded it as all a farce. * There is no man,' said this 
slaveholder, ' who will read the whole Bible to his 
slaves. If I recollect right, there is something in the 
Bible which speaks of breaking every yoke, and letting 
the oppressed go free ; and there is no master,' contin- 
ued he, ' who will read that to his slaves, not even your 
good Methodists ; and if we must not read the whole 
Bible, we may as well read none at at all.' Such were 
the views of slaveholders. 

I have somewhere read the following. Whether au- 
thentic, or not, it illustrates my point, and expresses, I 
am fully persuaded, very much of truth. It was the 
remark of a slave, after the master had been reading 
the Bible to him and his companion. ' Massa bery 
good Christian ; him bery good Christian indeed. Read 
de Bible to us ; but him always read de same chapter, 
what says, servants, obey your massas in all tings.' 

Here, unquestionably, we have just about the truth, 
on the subject of giving religious instruction to slaves. 
Multitudes never attempt it, and those who do, are sure 
to do it for their own interest, rather than for the good 
of the slave. That there are exceptions, I am willing 
to admit ; but all that I have said, exists unquestiona- 
bly, to a wide extent, and to an extent provided for by 
law. 1 am aware that the gospel is preached to some 
extent, and that some truly embrace it ; but these are 
the exceptions, and not the general rule. My claim is, 
that slavery destroys more souls among the slaves by 
keeping the Bible away from them, than infidelity could 
do in its place, if they were permitted to have the Bi- 



13 

ble and read for themselves; and it seems to me that 
this is a position which no honest man will dispute. — 
Slavery also destroys souls by force, when infidelity could 
only decoy, and therefore leave an opportunity for 
escape. 

3. Let us compare slavery with tho making and 
vending of ardent spirits. Do not suspect me of a wish 
to palliate, or extenuate the evils, or the guilt of this 
abominable business. I have often dwelt on these, un- 
til my soul has been pained within me, and until I am 
well persuaded that all, and far more than all which has 
ever been said or dreamed on that subject, is strictly 
true. 1 am aware too, that a highly gifted mind, has, 
some years since, drawn a parallel between intemper- 
ance and the slave-trade, in which he has endeavored 
to show, that the latter is an evil of the least magnitude. 
But I am comparing now the business of making and 
vending ardent spirits, with slavery as it exists at this 
time in our country. 

It has often been said with unquestionable truth, that 
from three to five hundred thousand miserable men in 
our nation, are confirmed drunkards, and that from thirty 
to fifty thousand go down every year to a drunkard's 
grave ; and inasmuch, as the drunkard cannot inherit 
the kingdom of God, they must go down to the depths 
of hell. A most fearful destruction this indeed. But 
instead of five hundred thousand, there are not less than 
two millions two hundred forty-five thousand in our 
country, held in the darkness of slavery. How many 
of these, think you, have sufficient light to guide their 
feet to heaven ? Shall we say one half? Who can 
2 



14 

believe it? But if this be admitted, there are still 
more than twice the number shut up by slavery, in a 
state of darkness that leads to hell, than have ever, by 
any man, been estimated in the ranks of intemperance. 
Is it not most clearly a truth, then, that slavery destroys 
more souls, than the making and vending of ardent 
spirit? When we consider, too, that slavery seizes its 
victims by force, and binds and rivets chains upon them 
which they cannot throw off, and thus leaves their souls 
unprovided with any of the means of grace, to die with- 
out hope; and that strong drink leaves men abundant 
opportunities to escape if they will ; who will not say 
that slavery is unspeakably more to be dreaded : that it 
is an evil of far greater magnitude than the other ? The 
intemperate man may at any time, break away from 
his bondage, give up his cups, enjoy the means of grace, 
embrace the truth and live. But the victim of slavery, 
shut out from all true knowledge of God, deprived by 
law of all opportunity of learning his Maker's will, or 
of studying the way of salvation by Christ ; what can 
he do, but remain in his darkness and and sin, until the 
darkness of eternal night closes in upon his benighted 
soul, and he is left for eternity to suffer the consequen- 
ces of unpardoned sin. True, the guilt of him who 
dies the willing victim of intern pesance, must be greater 
than that of the poor benighted slave, and his future 
punishment consequently more severe, but if slavery 
holds twice the number of victims exposed to hopeless 
reprobation, then it destroys twice the number of souls, 
and is therefore the greatest evil. 

4. Let us compare slavery with theft and robbery. 
Let me give a case for illustration. You are a husband 



15 

and a father. You commenced the world a poor man, 
but by hard labor and economy, you have collected to- 
gether a sum of money, which, you believe, if well in- 
vested, will place you and your family in circumstances 
of respectability and comfort. From statements made 
to you, or from your own observation, by going upon 
the ground, you come to the conclusion that your money 
can be more profitably appropriated, by removing to the 
West. Accordingly you convert every thing you pos- 
sess into cash, and make all the necessary arrange- 
ments for a removal with your family. On the night 
previous to your intended departure, a thief enters your 
house, takes possession of all you have, and makes off, 
and you never hear of it more. Or suppose you are 
already on yoi?r journey, and after many days of fatigu- 
ing travel, find yourself near the place of your destina- 
tion ; when you are met by the highwayman, who, with 
a pistol at your breast, robs you of your last farthing. — 
Now I suppose this would be a case, where theft and 
robbery would stand out in their worst features. It 
would be a trying case indeed. After years of toil, to 
gain something for yourself and household, you are in a 
moment pennyless, with your destitute, needy family 
upon your hands. AH you can do, is again to betake 
yourself to hard labor, to provide for those you love. 

But suppose after all this, you were doomed to see 
your children torn from you, one after another, and sold 
under the hammer, to go you know not where ; to be 
subjected to the cruelty, and abuse, and outrage, of any 
monster into whose hands they might chance to fall ; 
where you could never see or hear from them more ; 
and you left with no means of redress, to sit down be- 



16 

side your broken hearted wife, and mingle your tears 
and sighs and sobs with hers, with no prospect of relief 
until death. But in the midst of it all, even the wife 
of your bosom, dear as your own heart's blood, is sun- 
dered from you, and sold forever from your embrace, 
and you at last go of! under the hammer, to the highest 
bidder, and are driven by the lash, to groan, and sweat, 
under long, long days of unrequited toil, with no relief 
till you die. This is slavery. It robs a man of all his 
earnings during his whole life. Labor as he may, sweat 
as he may, he can never have a farthing to call his own. 
Just hear the laws on this subject. ' In South Carolina 
a slave is not permitted to keep a boat, or raise and 
breed for his own benefit, any horses, cattle, sheep or 
hogs, under pain of forfeiture, and any person may take 
them from him.' I ask, what is that but robbery — ex- 
cept it is unspeakably worse, because it is legalized — 
and the poor man has no means of redress ? It is made 
lawful for any person to rob him, by the letter of the 
statute. 

' In Georgia, the master is fined thirty dollars for suf- 
fering a slave to hire himself to another, for his own 
benefit. In Maryland, the master forfeits thirteen dol- 
lars for each month that his slave is permitted to receive 
wages on his own account. In Virginia, every master 
is finable, who permits a slave to work for himself at 
wages. In North Carolina, all horses, cattle, hogs, or 
sheep, that shall belong to any slave, or be of any 
slave's mark in this State, shall be seized and sold by the 
county Wardens. In Mississippi, the master is forbid- 
den under the penalty of fifty dollars, to let a slave 
raise cotton for himself, or to keep stock of any descrip- 



17 

tion.' Now where is the man under heaven, who 
would not say, that such a system of legalized oppres- 
sion, was infinitely worse than theft or robbery, when 
practiced toward himself? And what, I ask, makes the 
crime any less heinous, when practiced toward a colored 
man, than it would be if practiced toward either of us ? 
The poor slave feels such wrongs as deeply as we could, 
and groans under them as loudly, and sheds tears as pro- 
fusely as we would do ; but there he is, without means 
of redress. And in addition to all this robbery of 
everything in the shape of property ; the poor slave is 
robbed of his children, and his wife, and robbed of him- 
self — and has nothing left him, but a miserable exist- 
ence, subjected to the most cruel, heart-withering 
tyranny, that was ever practiced by man on his fellow 
man, since this world has borne the curse of its God. 
When the thief, or the robber, takes your property, you 
can repossess it whenever you can find it ; or if not, 
you can acquire more, and your wife, and children, and 
yourself, are still your own. Theft and robbery are 
nothing compared with the wickedness of slavery. 
Make them as bad as you please, and they do not de- 
serve to be named the same week. The difference be- 
tween them is too great to be described, too wide to be 
measured, too deep to be fathomed. The slaveholder 
who goes impenitent to hell, will find himself loaded 
down with a weight of guilt and damnation, that will 
sink him out of sight of the worst high-way robber that 
ever walked the earth. But you will say the high-way 
robber is often guilty of murder. Well, and so is the 
slaveholder often guilty of murder — and this brings me 
to *ny next point. 
2* 



18 

5. Let us now compare slavery with murder. Who 
does not know, that oftentimes, when the poor slave 
can no longer endure the outrages practiced upon him, 
and flies, and takes to the woods, he is hunted down by 
dogs, and guns, and thus put to death, just for trying to 
escape. Every body knows, that it is a thing of fre- 
quent occurrence. Put to death — just for trying to es- 
cape from his sufferings and his wrongs. Again, it is 
a maxim with them, that at particular seasons, they 
can afford to work a set of hands to death, for the pur- 
pose of getting their crops early to market, and thereby 
securing a much greater price. The writer of sketch- 
es of slavery, from a year's residence in Florida, speaks 
of this particularly, as coming under his observation 
while there ; and I have seen this fact referred to by 
other writers in public print. They do not hesitate to 
sacrifice the lives of their slaves to hard labor, when it 
will increase their profits. Besides, the poor slave is 
often whipped until the result is death. Is not my 
point made clear, abundantly clear, that slavery is worse 
than murder ? Would you not prefer to be met by a 
highwayman, and shot dead, rather than have your life 
worn out on a slave plantation, toiling to enrich the 
hard-hearted wretch who had stripped you of all your 
rights? Would you not prefer this to being whipped, 
and then laid away to die under the effect ? And is not 
the wretch who inflicts death by such means, to enrich 
himself, more guilty, than he who blows out the trav- 
eller's brains and seizes his money to enrich himself? 
Surely, my point needs no more illustration. Slavery 
is worse than murder. But there is still this point to 
be taken into the account. If a man shoots you dead 



19 

by the way side, it is your own fault if you do not go 
to heaven. You have the Bible, and the gospel. You 
know that there is a Saviour, and if you have not re- 
pented of your sins, and believed in him for salvation, 
you are without excuse. If you lose your soul, the 
fault is your own. Though murdered — you might if 
you would, have been saved. But the poor slave is 
prevented from learning the way of salvation while he 
lives, and then worn out with toil, he dies and is lost 
forever. Surely I need not say more — what honest man 
is not prepared to say that slavery is worse than murder ? 

6. I come now to a point, which, in the estimation 
of some, perhaps, ought to be suppressed. But 1 am 
a servant of the Most High God, and to him account- 
able ; and as such, placed under solemn obligation to 
cry aloud and spare not, and show this guilty nation its 
sins. This, with the Lord's help, I will do. It is high 
time also, that our mothers, and our wives, our sisters, 
and our daughters, knew the sufferings and the wrongs 
of the poor defenceless female slave, that they may lift 
up their strong cries to Heaven in her behalf. 

I wish, therefore, to compare slavery with fornication 
and adultery, and the violation of female purity by 
force. And, my hearers, I do not ask you to believe 
my naked assertion on this point, I will show you proof, 
as it has been my endeavor to do on every point pre- 
viously considered. 

Look again at the laws. In Kentucky — ( any negro, 
mulatto, or Indian, bond or free, who shall at any time, 
lift his hand in opposition to any white person, (mark 
the language) shall receive thirty lashes, on his or her 
bare back, well laid on, by order of the justice.' 



20 

This regulation, or something very much like it, is 
believed to be in force in all the slaveholding States. 
Look now at the condition in which this places the 
poor female. She is at the uncontrolled will of the 
master. He may order her, by fear of the lash, into 
any secret place where he pleases ; the same fear of 
the lash, enables him to accomplish all the hellish pur- 
poses of bis heart, and then, by the same means, he 
can seal her lips in silence, that the crime be never di- 
vulged. During all this time, if she lift a hand against 
him, he can procure thirty lashes for her, to be well 
laid on, by order of the justice, in addition to all he 
pleases to inflict himself. Let us now just remember, 
that in addition to such a regulation, no person of color 
can be a witness against a white man in a court of jus- 
tice, and you see the exact condition of the poor female 
slave. There is nothing, so foul in pollution, nothing 
so horrid in crime, but she may be driven by the lash, 
to be the victim of it, and she must not lift a hand in 
self-defence — and then she dare not divulge her wrongs, 
or if she does, there is no power on earth, from whom 
she can gain any redress ; or even protection, against 
a repeated infliction of the same evils. 

If slaveholders had framed laws ior the express pur- 
pose, of placing the purity and virtue of their females 
entirely in their own power, they could not have done 
it more effectually, than it is now done. It would seem 
to be a system, framed for the very purpose, of giving 
them full power, to pollute by force, just as many as 
they pleased. At any rate, they know the power is in 
their hands, and there are developements enough which 
show that they are not slow to use it.* There are a 

*Read Bourne's Picture of Slavery. 



21 

multitude of facts on this subject, and I will just relate 
one or two, because I know them to be authentic. 

A particular friend of mine, who spent several years 
in a slave State, gave me the following as an occurrence 
which transpired in the place where he resided, and at 
the very time of his residence there. A man, — I will 
not say gentleman, and in truth I ought to say monster, — 
who had a wife and a family of grown up daughters, re- 
siding with him, had also in his house a young female 
slave. This slave became the mother of a child, and 
it was a matter of public notoriety, that the head of the 
family was the father of it. So barefaced had the thing 
become, that the man found it necessary to take some 
measures to get his shame, and the extreme mortifica- 
tion of his wife and daughters out of his mind.* He 
accordingly sold her for the southern market, and 
though it was with some difficulty that he could per- 
suade the purchaser to take the infant, he at length did 
so, and the wretched mother, the victim of the master's 
beastliness and abominable crime, was taken, or rather 
torn from the house, and borne away, literally uttering 
cries and shrieks of distress. Now I would like to know 
whether there is any language under heaven, that will 
sufficiently set forth the guilt of such a wretch ? 

The following fact was related by a pious physician 
who resides in the city of Washington. It came to me 
in such a way thaj I know it to be a fact. 

' There is,' said this physician, ' residing in this city, 
a young female slave, who is pious, and a member of 
the same church to which I belong. She is a mulatto, 

* This occurrence was not very far South, otherwise, there would have 
been no shame, 



22 

and her complexion nearly white. One day, she came 
to me in great trouble and distress, and wished me to 
tell her what she could do. She stated to me, that her 
master's son, was in the practice of compelling her 
whenever he pleased, to go with him to his bed. She 
had been obliged to submit to it, and she knew of no 
way to obtain any relief. She could not appeal to her 
master for protection, for he was guilty of like practices 
himself. She wished to know what she could do ? 
Poor giil, what could she do? She could not lift a hand 
in self defence. She could not flee, for she was a slave. 
She would be brought back and beaten, and be placed 
perhaps in a worse condition than before. And there 
she was, a pious girl, with all the feelings of her heart 
alive to the woes of her condition, the victim of the 
brutal lusts of a dissolute young man ; with no means 
of defence or escape, and no prospect before her, but 
that of being again and again polluted, whenever his 
unbridled passions should chance to dictate. 

Perhaps there is a mother here, who has a pious 
daughter, and I would like to come into her heart, and 
ask what would be her feelings, if that daughter were 
placed in such circumstances as these ; or what would 
be the feelings of that daughter, if she weie thus bound 
down, to a condition so much worse than death. I do 
solemnly believe that there is no adulterer under heav- 
en, no fornicator, covered with a guilt so deep and 
damning, as the wretch that will pursue such a course 
of conduct as that. Even the victim of seduction is but 
decoyed from the paths of virtue, but here is a disciple 
of Christ, bound, and that too, by the laws of the land, 
and laid, a. helpless victim, on the altar of prostitution, 



23 

Here then, is a crime punishable, under most Gov- 
ernments, with death, and the victim has power of re- 
dress, and certainly of escape from a repetition of the 
outrage ; but slavery places its victims where there is 
no redress, and no deliverance ; and gives the slavehold- 
er full power, to roll, and riot, upon the virtue and inno- 
cence of as many defenceless females as he pleases, 
with no power under heaven to call him to account. I 
say again, if they had made their laws for the express 
purpose, of securing to themselves this power, they 
could not have done the thing more effectually ; and no 
man, who has ever seen or heard much of southern 
practices, is ignorant of the truth, that such things as I 
have been relating, are the common occurrences of ev- 
ery day. O, when I reflect on this subject, I could 
almost pray for a voice like a volcano ; and for words 
that would scorch and burn like drops of melted lava, 
that I might thunder the guilt of the slaveholder in his 
ears, and talk to him in language which he would feel. 
Who will say, that this system of slavery, under which 
no female, who has a drop of African blood in her 
veins, has any defence for her virtue, against any white 
man, even for an hour, and no possibility of escaping 
from pollution, is not unspeakably worse thau fornication 
and adultery, or even the violation of purity by force, 
where there ate laws to apprehend and punish for such 
a crime ? Do not suspect me of a wish to palliate these 
vices. They were never painted, in colorings too foul 
and loathsome ; nor was their guilt ever portrayed in a 
blackness deeper than the reality — but I say, the sys- 
tem of slavery is a thing fouler, blacker, guiltier still. 



24 

7. But let us look again, and compare slavery with 
treason. Benedict Arnold was a traitor. At a time, 
when his country was in great distress and difficulties, 
he formed the mad purpose, of delivering her over to the 
will of her enemies ; and did what he could, to accom- 
plish his end. Every breast in the land, burned w r ith 
indignation against him — and, but for his flight, he would 
have ended his days on a gallows. 

But suppose he had accomplished his end, and the 
unjust laws against which our fathers fought and bled, 
had remained in full force upon us until now ? I am 
bold to say, that we should not have suffered wrongs, 
that ought to be mentioned, in comparison with the 
wrongs of the slave. There was a heavy and unjust 
taxation, but it was not stripping us of all our earnings 
for life. There was a refusal, to give us a just repre- 
sentation, in framing the laws, by which we were to be 
governed ; but it was not stripping us from all protection 
of law, and reducing us in that respect, to the condition 
of cattle or swine. It was not stripping us of all our 
rights, and robbing us of our children, and subjecting 
our wives, our sisters and our daughter*, to wanton and 
promiscuous violation, with no power to lift a hand in 
self defence, and depriving us of the power of giving 
them protection. The husband or father, if he be a 
a slave, may look on, and see his wife or daughter pol- 
luted before his eyes, and all the laws of the land, are 
against his lifting a finger for their deliverance. He may 
toil ever so hard, during his whole life, and he cannot 
be worth a farthing. The treason of Arnold, had it 
prospered, would never have subjected us to such evils 
as these. Besides, had we remained until this time 



25 

British Colonies, other things being as they now are, 
this evil of slavery would now have been done away, 
and perhaps years ago. When I think of this, if I had 
not confidence in the overruling Providence of God, I 
could almost weep, that it did not seem best to the God 
of armies, to leave us under the control of a power, 
that would have uprooted this destructive Bohon Upas, 
which is still throwing its broad branches of death 
and desolation, over such wide spreading portions of 
our otherwise happy land. Sure I am, that Arnold's 
treason would never have made our land groan under 
such woes, and send up to heaven such cries of distress, 
as are wrung daily from the breasts of the helpless mil- 
lions whom our nation now enslaves. I say again, 
therefore, that the system of slavery, is unspeakably 
worse than treason. But I cannot pursue this parallel 
farther. I have glanced at what men regard as the 
worst of evils and crimes ; but when weighing the guilt 
of slavery, we find that everything which we can place 
in the opposite scale, at once kicks the beam. It has 
a weight of guilt attached to it, that can be balanced by 
the guilt of no other crime. 

There is one more point to the thing, which I wish 
to name, as giving blackness and aggravation to its guilt, 
and then I have done. It is, that multitudes of the 
professed disciples of Christ, come forward to justify 
the system of slavery, and to claim for it the sanctions 
of the word of God. Yes, this system of slavery, red 
as it is with crime, black as it is with guilt, and foul as 
it is with impurity, is called, even by professed Chris- 
tians and Ministers, an institution of the Bible. Oh, it 
3 



26 

seems to me, that if the long suffering patience of a 
forbearing God, was ever insulted beyond endurance, it 
must be, when the protection of his authority is claim- 
ed, for the perpetuity of such a system as this. There 
is no crime which it does not legalize — no sin which it 
does not protect — no depth of impurity which it does 
not dig, and in which it does not permit vile men to 
wallow. And yet there are not wanting men, Christian 
men, and ministers who wait at the altar of God, who 
call this an institution of Heaven, and claim for it the 
authority of the Most High. I know that they would 
plead for slavery, without the abominations which I 
have named, and claim to look upon such crimes, and 
vices, with as deep an abhorrence as we. 

But who cannot see, that slavery is the common 
mother of all this brood of hellish ills ; in whose fright- 
fully prolific womb they are conceived, and by whom 
they are brought forth. Slavery itself is the thing to 
be reprobated ? You must put the odious dam to death, 
or she will continue to multiply her infernal progeny, 
and send them abroad among us, prolific in woes. You 
cannot have slavery without its concomitant evils, I 
know men may be found, whose hearts have felt the 
power of the religion of Christ, but whose moral sensi- 
bilities are not sufficiently awake, to lead them to obey 
God on this subject, to break every yoke and let the 
oppressed go free, who claim that they treat their slaves 
kindly, and that under such circumstances, slavery is 
justifiable ; and that moreover, they are not account- 
able for the crimes which other men commit among 
their slaves, or for the wrongs which they practice upon 
them. Kindness to an enslaved man ! It is a con- 



27 

tradiction in terms. You might as well rob him of 
his all on earth, cut off his hands and feet, and bore 
out his eyes, and then take him into your house, and 
treat him kindly to make up for the wrong. 

The slave, under the best circumstances, is the vic- 
tim of robbery every day. Day by day, all his life, 
he is robbed of the fruits of his labor, that it may go 
to enrich another. He has hands indeed, but he may 
not use them for his own benefit. Feet he has, but 
they may not bear him where he would go. They 
must go and come at the master's bidding, and not his. 
He has eyes, but he may not look on the light of 
science, or on the clearer, purer light of God's reveal- 
ed truth. Even the sun shines not for him, as it only 
serves to light him to his unwilling and unrequited toil. 
Of what use then, are hands, and feet, and eyes, to 
him ? He can no more use them for his own benefit, 
than if he had none — and yet vou think to make up to 
him by kindness what you have taken away ; and call 
yourself a disciple of Christ, and think that Heaven 
will reward you for being so kind to your poor oppress- 
ed, down trodden victim, whom you compel to labor 
unrewarded, for your good. Is that the religion of 
Christ ? Is that loving your neighbor as yourself ? 

But, the most kind hearted, and upright, and pious 
slaveholder in the land, so far as he approves of the 
system of slavery, and pleads for its perpetuity, is at 
best, accessory to all the evils to which the system 
gives rise. He is therefore a partaker in its guilt, and 
will hereafter find his hands stained and polluted with 
its vices and its crimes. He who has said in his Bi- 
b\Q, Be not partaker of other men's sins, has also 



28 

said, Come out from among them, and be ye separate, 
and touch not the unclean thing, and no man can be 
guiltless who refuses to do this. 

But perhaps it will be asked ; admitting that slavery 
is everything that you claim it to be, what right have 
you to interfere ? I claim no right of interference, 
based on the existing laws of our country, for these, 
as we have seen, are so abominably wicked and oppres- 
sive, as fully to sanction all the evils and crimes which 
we have been considering. Still, I claim, that I have 
a right to interfere,* and to do all in my power, by ev- 
ery possible means, for the extinction of slavery. Do 
any ask, on what that right is based ? I answer, on 
the statute book of Almighty God — on the pillars cf 
heaven's eternal throne, and belter authority than this, 
to sanction my interference, I do not ask. ' Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' ' Who is my 
neighbor ? ' Let Jesus Christ answer. ' A certain 
man, no matter who, went down from Jerusalem to 
Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of 
his raiment, and wounding him, departed, leaving him 
half dead. And by chance, there came down a cer- 
tain priest that way ; and when he saw him, he passed 
by on the other side.' How exactly like the conduct 
of many ministers of the gospel, toward the slave. 
They just look on his sufferings, and pass by, making 
no effort to give him relief. ''And likewise a Levite, 
when he was at the place, came and looked on him, 
and passed by on the other side.' Just so multitudes 
of professing Christians conduct toward the slave. 

* The author disapproves of intei forence at the expense of human life, 
but believes that all possible means short of the shedding ot blood, are 
justifiable. 



29 

They look on him, pass on, and leave him alone in his 
woes. ' But, a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, 
came where he was, and when he saw him, he had 
compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his 
wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his 
own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care 
of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he 
took out two pence and gave them to the host, and 
said unto him, take care of him, and whatsoever thou 
spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.' 
Here our Saviour has shown us what it is to act the 
part of a neighbor. This Samaritan found a fellow 
being in distress. He stopped not to inquire who he 
was, but proceeded at once to do as he would like to 
have others do to him in like circumstances. And now 
the command of Christ is, ' Go thou and do likewise.' 
Wherever, therefore, we find a fellow being in distress, 
we find in him a neighbor, one whom we are bound to 
love as we love ourselves. We are to identify our- 
selves with him, and feel for his wrongs and his woes, 
as we would for our own in like circumstances, and 
are to do for him, so far as lies in our power, every- 
thing, which, in like circumstances, we could wish oth- 
ers to do for us. Tell me not then, that I have no 
right to interfere, when I see more than two millions of 
my neighbors, yes, of my brethren, my own fellow 
countrymen, groaning and toiling, and dying, under the 
unparalleled wrongs of slavery. I have no right not to 
interfere. I am a traitor to my neighbor, and a rebel 
against my God, if I forbear to interfere ; if I fail to 
use the last power which my Maker has given me, in 
3# 



30 

pleading for the immediate deliverance of my fellow 
men from their sufferings and their chains. I trample 
on the universal law of the infinite Jehovah, if I leave 
undone anything in my power, which I would wish to 
have done for me, if all the miseries of slavery were mine. 

But it is not merely by looking at the general prin- 
ciples of God's government, that I learn my duty to- 
ward the toil-worn, agonized, suffering slave. I find 
positive direction for this specific case. Jer. 21 : 12. 
— t Thus saith the Lord — Execute judgment in the 
morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand 
of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire, and 
burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of 
your doings.' Who is spoiled, if it be not the slave ? 
Is he not spoiled of everything ? Spoiled of all his 
earnings — spoiled of the child whom he loves — spoiled 
of the wife that is bone of his bone, and flesh of his 
flesh — spoiled even of the ownership of himself, and 
spoiled of his immortal soul, by being robbed of the 
light that would guide his feet to heaven ? And the 
poor suffering female slave — of what is she not spoil- 
ed ? Spoiled of all that protection, which the inno- 
cent and helpless, have a right to claim, even of the 
savage. Spoiled of all the affectionate tenderness, 
which woman everywhere, has a right to expect ; 
spoiled even of her virtue, and that by law, for we 
have seen, that the laws have placed her, where she 
cannot preserve it, if she would. 

Who then, I ask again, is spoiled, if it be not the 
slave ? And who is an oppressor, if it be not the man 
who holds him in bondage, and inflicts all these wrongs 
upon him ? While, therefore, I hear the God of heaven 



31 

saying, c Deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand 
of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire, and 
burn, that none can quench it,' can I expect to escape 
the fury of that fire, if I shut my ears against the man- 
date, which thunders upon me from the presence cham- 
ber, and from the lips of Him, who declares himself 
King of kings, and Lord of lords ? Tell me not, that 
I have no right to interfere — no right to plead for the 
deliverance c of the spoiled out of the hand of the op- 
pressor.' I may not fail to do it — lest the fire of God's 
fury kindle upon me, for my disregard of his high com- 
mand. And the same, is true of all my readers. 
Unless you have a right to disobey Almighty God, 
you have no right to leave anything undone, which you 
might do, for the deliverance of the slave. 

But who is the slave ? He is a man — made in the 
image of God — and bears as much of God's image, re- 
member, as though he had the complexion, and the 
features, and the limbs, of the white man. Where is 
the man with a pale face, even among slaveholders, 
who will stand up, before the face of heaven, and claim 
that he bears more of God's image than his slave ? 
He would show the image of the devil, large as life, 
had he the pride, and effrontery, to do such a deed of 
daring impiety. The slave is made in the image of his 
God, and to him God gave dominion over the works of 
his hand, as much as to the white man. For him God 
lighted up the sun and moon, and made the heavens re- 
splendent with stars, as much as for us. For him God 
made the breath of morning, and the calm stillness of 
the summer eve — for him the deep blue sky w T as spread 
a canopy, and for him puts on alternate tints of purple 



32 

and of gold. For him the landscape smiles in green, 
and flowers spring up to beautify his path, and trees 
hang out their foilage, and bend beneath their burdens 
of delicious fruit. For him the fields wave with 
their ripening grain — for him the valleys yield their corn 
— for him the flocks and herds lay down their treasures, 
and the sea sends up its inexhaustible supplies. For 
him the limpid stream, the clear pure fountain were 
provided, and for him the balmy air, echoing with 
melody of birds. Ah, and for him, remember it ye 
who dare withhold it from him — for him the Bible was 
given. Who dare say, that God provided these things 
for the master, more than for the man whom he enslaves. 
But what is more than all, for him the Son of God 
came down and died. The blood gushed from his 
heart as freely, and in streams as pure, for the oppress- 
ed and broken hearted slave, as for us, or for the man 
who dares enslave God's image — for him the river of 
water of life, proceedeth clear as crystal from the throne 
of God and the Lamb — for him the streets of the New 
Jerusalem are paved with gold, and for him, the glory 
of God and the Lamb, shall pour forth its light, in 
beams that shall forever hide the brightness of the 
noonday sun — and for him are made readj~ the joys of 
an eternal heaven. Yes, this is the being whom slave- 
ry binds in chains, and robs of all the richest gifts of 
heaven, and sinks in ignorance and pollution down to 
hell. Oh, if the whole arch cf heaven above us, ever 
echoed with the loud threatenings of an indignant God 
. — it may now be heard to echo with the fearful interro- 
o-ation — ' Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord ? 
Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? ' 



33 

And now will you look on, and seal your lips in si- 
lence, and say that you have no right to interfere for 
the deliverance of the slave ? Do you not hear the 
God of heaven saying, ' Deliver him that is spoiled 
out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth 
like fire and burn that none can quench it ; ' and dare 
you disobey ? Do you ask what shall be done for his 
deliverance ? I answer, let every pulpit thunder forth 
this mandate of the most high God — let every minister 
at the altar cry aloud and spare not and lift up his voice 
like a trumpet — and show this people their transgres- 
sions ; this guilty people their sins. Let every press 
groan to be delivered of its obligation, to make known 
the Almighty's will — and let such as can pray, pray 
noiv, that God will break every yoke, and let the op- 
pressed go free. Especially, let woman — woman, the 
last to linger around the cross, and the first to find the 
sepulchre of God's crucified Son ; linger long at the 
altar of prayer, and be found early upon her knees, 
wrestling at the throne of grace ; and let all who fear 
God or love man, resolve before high Heaven, that they 
will not rest, till every chain is broken, every yoke 
buried, every scourge and fetter burned. 

But I seem to hear some one ask — must we think 
only of the slave — must we not regard the master's 
rights? Rights! What rights? Right to hold his 
fellow man in bondage for one hour ? He might as 
well claim a right to sit on the throne of God. He 
has no such right. But must he relinquish all the 
property he now holds in slaves ? He has no such 
property. He has no more right to call them his prop- 
erty, than he has to call the angels in heaven his prop- 



34 

erty. God gave man dominion over the beasts of the 
field — but over God's own image he never gave him 
dominion. The wicked, heaven-daring laws of men, 
confer the power of enslaving man — but the right they 
never gave, for it was never theirs to give. There is 
no such thing as property in man — there never can be. 
We do not ask the slaveholder to relinquish any right. 
We call upon him, on the authority of God, to break 
every yoke and let the oppressed go free. We do not 
ask them to give up their property. We tell them that 
God declares them to be c like wolves ravening the 
prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, to get dishon- 
est gain ; and that the prophets have daubed them with 
untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto 
them, saying thus saith the Lord, when the Lord hath 
not spoken. That the people of the land have used 
oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the 
poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger wrong' 
fully — and that God now threatens to pour out his in- 
dignation upon them, and to consume them with the 
fire of his wrath, and to recompense their way upon 
their own heads.' No — we do not ask the slaveholder 
to give up his property — we ask them ' to cease beat- 
ing God's people to pieces — to cease grinding the face 
of the poor ; ' and when the slaveholder has done that, 
the lost slave will have his freedom. 

But you say it would make great changes in society, 
to free every slave at once, and many a man, who now 
lives in affluence, would instantly become poor. We 
doubt it not. We doubt not that many a wretch, who 
has rolled in profusion, by robbing his fellow men of 
their earnings, would be obliged to go to work with his 



35 

own hands to earn his bread ; and this is just what 
he ought to have done long ago. He is made of no 
better clay than the lowliest of all God's creatures 
whom he enslaves ; and there is no more reason why- 
he should be exempted from eating his bread in the 
sweat of his brow. Let us arise then with one heart, 
and with united voice, and with ready hands, do our 
utmost, to deliver the oppressed from their wrongs. 

But it may still be asked, what do you expect to ac- 
complish ? We expect to make the slaveholder feel, 
that when he crushes an immortal soul down to the 
depths of hell, to gratify his own abominable selfish- 
ness, God will hold him accountable for that soul at the 
judgment day. We expect to make him see, that the 
short-lived gratification, which he can have derived from 
enslaving his fellow man, will but poorly compensate 
him, for the eternal damnation which he must hereafter 
endure, if he does not repent of his abominable sin. 
We expect to open to him the broad claims of the in- 
finite God, and to make him see that in his present 
course of conduct, he is holding himself in open ex- 
posure to the Almighty's wrath ; and having thus bared 
his conscience to the arrows of truth, we expect to call 
down the Holy Spirit by our prayers, to fix these ar- 
rows deep in his heart ; to reprove him of sin, of 
righteousness and of judgment, and thus to bring him 
to unfeigned repentance before God, We expect not 
to accomplish what we aim at with our unaided strength 
— but we believe that the Lord of hosts is with us, and 
trusting in his strength we cannot fail. Christians of 
every name, shall we not have your aid ? Lovers of 
your fellow men, look at the wrongs of the slave, and 



36 

weep and toil for him, that he may go free. Open your 
hearts and your hands to him, and remember that ' He 
that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord, and 
that which he hath given he will pay him again.' 

Let no one think to rid himself of obligation, on this 
momentous subject. Every man has a tongue, and he 
can use it ; he has influence, and he can exert it ; he 
has moral power, and he can put it forth ; and this is 
all the power we need. Our efforts are aimed, not at 
the life of the slaveholder, but at bis conscience — his 
moral feelings, and with the help of God, we do expect 
them to prevail. But, perhaps you will say, that slave- 
holders have no conscience on this subject. Doubtless 
their conscience may be dead and buried ; it may have 
been sleeping these fifty years in its grave ; but come 
on, one and all, let us raise the trump of truth, and 
blow a resurrection blast above it, that shall call it forth 
from its dust, to take up its whip of scorpions, and 
scourge the guilty men into obedience to the commands 
of God. Slavery cannot long live among them. c Be- 
hold, the hire of the laborers, who have reaped down 
their fields, which is of them kept back by fraud, 
crieth ; and the cries of them which have reaped, are 
entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' The 
Lord of armies, is the fearful signification of that term ; 
and if they cease not from their oppression, they may 
well expect, that the Lord of armies will not long with- 
hold his hand. LTp, rny friends, and do your duty, to 
deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, 
lest the fire of God's fury kindle ere long upon you. 



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